Daily Meditations
Read today’s Just for Today or A Spiritual Principle A Day readings.
Just for Today
November 06, 2026 |
Understanding humility |
| Page 324 |
| "Humility is a result of getting honest with ourselves." |
| Basic Text, p. 36 |
| Humility was an idea so foreign to most of us that we ignored it as long as we could. When we first saw the word "humbly" ahead in Step Seven, we may have figured it meant we had quite a bit of humiliation in store. Perhaps we chose to look it up in the dictionary, only to become even more confused by the definition. We didn't understand how "lowliness and subservience" applied to recovery. To be humble does not mean we are the lowest form of life. On the contrary, becoming humble means we attain a realistic view of ourselves and where we fit in the world. We grow into a state of awareness founded on our acceptance of all aspects of ourselves. We neither deny our good qualities nor overemphasize our defects. We honestly accept who we are. No one of us will ever attain a state of perfect humility. But we can certainly strive to honestly admit our faults, accept our assets, and rely on our Higher Power as a source of strength. Humility doesn't mean we have to crawl life's path on our hands and knees; it just means we must admit we cannot recover on our own. We need each other and, above all, we need the power of a loving God. |
| Just for Today: To be humble, I will honestly accept all facets of myself, seeing my true place in the world. For the strength I need to fill that place, I will rely on the God of my understanding, |
A Spiritual Principle a Day
November 07, 2026 |
Purpose and Our Path Forward |
| Page 322 |
| "Faith in the process means believing that we are moving in the right direction, even if it's not where we thought we would be going." |
| Living Clean, Chapter 1, "Desperation to Passion" |
| On the day of our first NA meeting, we may have predictions about what our lives will look like without drugs, but what if our dreams don't come true? Desperation has forced us to strive for something new, but what will it be? We now have choices about how we live that we didn't have before, but how do we know which is the "right" path and if we're following our life's "true" purpose? If we don't have a whole lot of faith in the future, how can we get more? Whatever questions we have about finding our true purpose, the same crystal ball that didn't work when we were high doesn't when we're clean either. Thankfully, more is revealed as we stay clean. Through the Steps, we discover our values and convictions. For many of us, that means our purpose radically shifts, or we find one at last. Recovery gives us a chance to revisit goals that addiction interfered with, or we start from scratch. Hope helps us to believe we're headed down the right path, and faith keeps our feet moving in that direction. We find purpose (or many purposes, as time passes) in NA, in a career, in relationships, in our communities, on a mountaintop, in a foreign land, or in sitting still. We learn to serve others more than our egos. We practice self-acceptance and model it for newer members who think that being okay with themselves is unattainable. Many of us also have--or regain and revitalize--our faith in a God who has a plan for us that we can't predict, ardently believing this plan is better than one we could create on our own. Others find purpose in a life guided by spiritual principles or believe the universe conspires in our favor, cheering us on. Having faith in finding and living our purpose takes practice. Recovery in NA provides us with tools to manage our discomfort with trial and error, impossible without plenty of open-mindedness and willingness along the journey. |
| ——— ——— ——— ——— ——— |
| I can't predict the future, but I believe I have one. I will move in a direction and see where the path leads. It's worth staying alive to find out. |